Just a little "fanfire"

Things are going well down here….except our baptism fell through AGAIN! We were all ready to baptize a family on Sunday, but the father got drunk the night before and the mom is having word of wisdom problems too. Satan really is working against us down here. This mission is already passing by too fast! I know I already said this, but the decision to serve a mission was hands-down the BEST decision of my life! I think I will cry for days when they tell me I have to go home in 15 months. I love almost everything about Brazil. I´m used to the weather for the most part and the food is bom de mais! ( that means WAY TOO GOOD!!!) Today I was thinking that missionaries have to have some of the best stories because so many random things happen on a mission. Today at lunch a fan almost caught fire. It threw sparks everywhere and was smoking BAD. The entire house was filled with smoke and it took a while for us to fan it all out. It was mildly funny. I have so many stories that ARE actually funny to tell you, but a lot of them will have to wait until after the mission and I think they probably won~t ever be posted on a blog. All I can say is that we have a lot of fun down here and nothing surprises me anymore! This morning I read Elder Wirthlins talk from conference last year—Come What May and Love it! I love that talk so much….mostly because the page in the Ensign has a chubby little boy smiling ..but he´s missing his two front teeth. So cute. That talk really does have a lot of great counsel though and helped me a lot today to just grin and bear things. Anyway…life is great. I am so happy to be blessed with such a wonderful family and perfect life!

It has been a great week!

Ola !How are you all doing?! I~m doing well. This last week was much better, in fact it was GREAT! I~m finally adjusting to the life of a missionary and really do love it! It is a lot easy to love life when you aren~t thinking about yourself. So this past week I stopped thinking about my pains and afflictions and focused on the work. It was awesome! I~m still exhausted every night and fall asleep before I hit the pillow, but the walking doesn~t bother me that much anymore. And I won~t ever get used to the sun so I just learning to deal with it! The hottest months here are October through January so I should be a little bit more comfortable after that! A 70 yr old investigator of ours said this was the hottest December she had seen in years and years. Nice. Things are going great though. I really love Sousa and absolutely adore the people here. We~ve made so many friends just by saying Bom Dia to every person we pass on the streets. The work is going okay. There are a lot of Catholics here who are very VERY into their religion so that makes things discouraging at times….but don~t worry all we do is allow people the opportunity to accept. In the CTM they told us a mission is primarily to convert the missionary and secondly to convert the people. I have to say I am more converted now than ever…which makes it hard when people reject the gospel. The other night we were teaching our last lesson of the day and I was teaching about the Book of Mormon. We asked the woman if she would read 2 chapters and pray about them, she took one look at it and said, `nope. sorry i~m catholic´. I couldn~t help but tear up. I held this precious book in my hands that has blessed my life more than any other book and people don~t even want to do something as simple as pray about it. It hurts, but my companion says I~ll get used to it. I love being a missionary though. It is turning out to be the greatest blessing of my life. The Lord has blessed me with so many tender mercies this week. He really does love and watch over His missionaries! This next Sunday I have to give a talk in church. 10-15 minutes of straight Portuguese!!!!! Ahh I hope I can do it! Pray that it will go well! My present to myself is to teach 6 lessons (which is a lot for here) and then eat Acai with my district. It should be great! So today is Pday and I have to tell you I just had one of the best meals of my life! The branch president here invited all 8 of us missionaries over for almoço and he made churrasco! Imagine the food at tucanos restaurant, but a million times better. All the missionaries were just in heaven. I seriously thought I was going to die from happiness…seriously…one of the best meals of my life. After we had all the beef and sausage we could eat, we ate tons of ice cream. It was just the best lunch ever! The members here are just the best. They feed us lunch everyday and always make themselves available to go with us to teach investigators. What a blessing! I~m getting used to the poverty here, but things still shock me from time to time. This past week we were walking through a neighborhood and had to watch our step because half of the road was straight sewage. It is going to be interesting when the rainy season arrives and all the roads are 1-3 feet deep in water. People still stop and stare at me when I pass, but I~m so used to it now that it doesn~t even phase me. I~ve learned to ignore the town drunks too. They only bother you if you acknowledge they exist. I don~t ever feel like I~m in danger though....Sousa is a very friendly place. I actually do have Pday next Monday so please tell everyone to write! love, sister wood.

So I just wrote a long email and the computer messed up and didnt send it so this one will be shorter. Next week is my last Pday before Christmas because Pday is on Christmas day the next week after that. For Christmas you will have to call a chapel here in Sousa. Preferably in the afternoon or evening. In the morning we are busy with members and studying. Things are going ok in Sousa. These past two weeks have been the hardest weeks on my life..hands down. I~ve lost count of how many times I~ve cried, but I think the worst is over for now. It is just hard to remained composed when your feet and knees are killing you, you have horrible sunburns despite the fact you use sunscreen, and the people never keep commitments. They people are so nice here, but never read or pray about the things we teach. It is frustrating. BUT things are looking up. The last two days I~ve been slowly returning to my joyful, energetic, cheerful self. Yesterday was interesting. Fast sundays in branches are probably always interesting. There aren~t very many people to bear testimonies so of course almost everyone went up. I bore my testimony in broken portuguese, but it was good. Several people told me afterwards that they only bore their testimonies because of mine. That was nice to hear. The members here are great. Everyday we eat lunch with a different member and it is always delicious! We eat some interesting things at times, but i like trying new foods now. Sousa is definitely a different place....way different than anything I am used to. It is now normal for me to see naked children running in the streets and playing in piles of trash....we see this several times a day. Animals roam the streets....they are honestly everywhere! Horses, donkeys, cows, chickens, and this last week we were walking along and out of nowhere this big pig busts starts walking across the main street in town. It was adorable though because about 7-8 little piglets were following right behind her. The sunsets here in Sousa are indescribable....seriously beautiful in everyway! Also the moon is amazing here at night.. It is so close. at times you think you could almost reach out and touch it. The other night we were in a super poor neighborhood underneath the full moon watching the neighborhood kids do capoiera...a brazilian fighting/dancing type of thing. They were so good!!!!! A guy from town teaches them everyweek and he was AMAZING. It was just a lot of fun because they made us introduce ourselves and then we all started clapping and chanting to the beat of the music. It was just a great experience!Ok well I have to go. I hope you are all doing well. Love you all,sister wood some scriptures that have helped me out a lot! Moses 6:31-34 Romans 8:35-39 Job 23:8-12